Canada’s under-18 women’s team reboots for world championship

CALGARY After a cancellation and a delay, Canada’s top young female hockey talent starts preparing to finally step on the world stage.

A selection camp of 40 players opened Tuesday in Calgary to choose the Canadian team for the 2022 women’s under-18 team championship June 6-13 in Madison and Middleton, Wis.

The tournament was relocated from Linkoping and Mjolby, Sweden, and rescheduled from January when it was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 women’s under-18 championship in the same Swedish cities was cancelled while the world men’s under-20 in Edmonton and men’s under-18 championship in Frisco, Texas, were completed last year causing consternation in the women’s hockey community.

When the International Ice Hockey Federation announced the cancellation of the 2022 women’s tournament again two weeks out from the Jan. 8 puck drop, and on the eve of the men’s under-20 championship back in Edmonton — which only lasted four days because of outbreaks — dismay in the women’s hockey world grew louder on social media.

Hockey Canada announced Jan. 20 the 23 under-18 players who would have worn the Maple Leaf in Sweden.

“We made a selection before the world championship got cancelled and in honour of these kids, because we still didn’t know in January we were going to have a world championship. We felt it was important for them to get recognized they were named to the team,” Hockey Canada director of operations Gina Kingsbury said Monday.

“The way it was communicated to them is if we do get to have a world championship, and we’re able to have a selection camp, it’s the right thing to do for everyone involved, to do it the right way.”

With the 2022 tournament rescheduled to late spring in the United States, 24 forwards, a dozen defenders and four goalies were invited to selection camp vying to play in the first women’s world under-18 championship in more than two years.

“It’s really big for women’s hockey because I can’t imagine two years in a row of no competition at all in this age group,” Kingsbury said. “I’m looking at it through a high-performance lens. What does that look like in 2030 and 2034?

“In general, there’s way more repercussions than just that. There’s college, everything. These kids have been impacted nationally, but also locally as well. They haven’t had their normal seasons. There were a lot of restrictions and things they had to adapt to.”

All those named to the initial squad in January were invited to selection camp.

Two-thirds of Canada’s Olympic team that claimed gold in Beijing are alumni of a world under-18 championship, including captain Marie Philip-Poulin and Natalie Spooner who played in the first tournament in 2008 in Calgary.

Canada lost 2-1 in overtime to the U.S. in the last under-18 final in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2020.

Canada’s second under-18 roster this year will be named following intrasquad games Friday and Saturday at WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre.

Canada, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. comprise Group A in Wisconsin, with Czechia, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland in Group B.

The Canadians open June 6 against the Finns, followed by the Swedes on June 7 and the U.S. on June 9.

Canadian women’s under-18 teams have won five gold, seven silver and one bronze in the history of the tournament.